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The Department of the History of Art, which operates within the Faculty of History, is a vibrant centre for postgraduate students.  It offers a one-year taught postgraduate M.St. degree in the History of Art and Visual Culture.  (M.St., ‘Master of Studies’, is the distinctive name for what elsewhere is often called ‘MA’).  Students admitted to this programme do not necessarily have to have a first degree in art history, and we welcome applicants from a broad range of backgrounds.  The programme is suitable both as preparation for further research and as a postgraduate qualification in its own right.  In addition to a rigorous training in methodology, students take one two-term optional course, and research and write a 15,000 word dissertation on a topic they choose, approved and supervised by a scholar with relevant specialist expertise.  Lists of past student dissertation topics are available here. 

All postgraduate students take part in the Department’s Research Seminar, and in the huge range of disciplinary and interdisciplinary seminars which make Oxford an outstandingly exciting setting for the study of History of Art.

For further information, please see the course overview on the History Faculty website.  For details about the application process, please consult the postgraduate admissions section of the History Faculty website.